40k Is Four Hobbies In A Trenchcoat

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**JNAProductions**

Warhammer looks like one hobby, but it's not. It's four hobbies in a trenchcoat.

1) Collecting - Some people get a kick from having a large collection,
2) Building/Converting - Some people like to custom build models from bits,
3) Painting - Some people get a sense of pride from having everything well painted,
4) Gaming - Some people enjoy the challenge of battling others to the death.

The trenchcoat that covers them all is the Fluff, the shared universe of insanity and skulls-on-everything without which the other four couldn't co-exist.

Of course, every person values each of the five differently for their own enjoyment.
Personally I enjoy the gaming first, fluff second, converting third, and painting/collecting doesn't really make the list at all.

You tend to get issues when one person's enjoyment of one aspect, interferes with another persons enjoyment of a different aspect.
"Your models must be painted." "But I just want to game!"
"Your Looted Wagon is on the wrong base." "But I converted it specially!"

This is a quote from a fellow forum-goer on a different forum (mostly about D&D, but has a 40k thread). I found it, in addition to being funny, pretty smart too.

For me personally, I like to build and play. I don't really care about my collection except for how it furthers my ability to game, and while I like painted models, I just do not like painting.

**Horst**

I like model building and painting, and like gaming. To a certain extent I like collecting as well, I just generally collect models that have applications in playing the game.

So yea, I like aspects of all four of those hobbies, but probably enjoy painting and gaming the most.

**Racerguy180**

I'll put them like this since I like all four:
1) Painting
2) collecting
3) Building
4) Playing

#1 & 2 are pretty much tied but painting is very cathartic so that wins out.

Playing is a distant 4th, I look @ it like this. It is a cool way to interact with them and have a visual spectacle for the eyes. The game being actually fun to play currently is just a bonus.

**Strg Alt**

Painting and collecting. When I started into the hobby gaming was much more important.

Back in in the day one of my regular fellas was too lazy to properly glue the arms to the minis and they fell off all the time. I proceeded to troll him the next game by deploying a blister which included a CSM with a lascannon. The "blister" even managed to take out a tank. Good times, indeed.

**ikeulhu**

Almost feel like labeling the "fluff" as a "trenchcoat" and not an actual part of the hobby does not do that aspect justice. Up until 8th edition I had never played tabletop 40k, but I was drawn into the setting way back with the original edition of the Space Hulk board game. For many years reading Black Library books was the only part of the "hobby" I actually participated in.

**Insectum7**

All of them?

**Desubot**

Insectum7 wrote:
All of them?

All of them

**ServiceGames**

I definitely belong in the Building and Painting areas. I don't specifically collect one army as I have more GW models that I want to think about. And, I've only played one demo game and one modified rule first game of an Escalation League.

SG

**Kelligula**

I like collecting and painting. Don't care about playing anymore and only get one game a quarter.

**bananathug**

Playing
Building (kit bashing FTW, mono-pose is lame)

collecting
painting (but I'm getting better)

**Galas**

Gaming>Building=Fluff>>Collecting>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Painting.

**BrianDavion**

yeah I think we can add a 5th part of the hopbby to this under the guise of "lore" plenty of 40k fans are most intreasted in the lore, story etc. people who fall under this catagory would be people who buy vigilus ablaze etc for the fluff

**ImperialArmy**

I am gonna go ahead and add more to the list.

Terrain making.
Fluff writing.
recreational reading.
and internet scoffing.

**Avatar 720**

For me, it's:
1 - Gaming
2 - Fluff
3 - Collecting
4 - Building
5 - Literally everything else in the universe up to and including sudden unexplained death
7 - Painting

**Stormonu**

All four, but just barely. Order for me is:

1) Collecting - looks are everything, and I enjoy getting at least one of everything

2) Building - I dive into this with gusto. Very much enjoy putting new models together.

3) Painting - I really enjoy a painted model, and I can do a decent tabletop level paint job. I’m not above buying prepainted or having someone paint for me, even if it’s a slightly lower job than I can do myself.

4) Gaming - I’m usually neck deep in one of the above as well as very picky about who I play with. I’m lucky if I get two games a year.

I agree with “fluff” being the trench coat GW uses to influence you into joining the hobby and giving people a reason to buy hordes of plastic instead of single models.

**Peregrine**

I feel like threads like this exist primarily to make the people who refuse to paint their models feel better about their decision by separating out the painting into its own separate hobby that they can opt out of. In reality painting is inherently part of the gaming hobby, as it's the reason to pay thousands of dollars for miniatures instead of playing a game with $20 worth of cardboard tokens. You can in theory participate without painting, but one has to ask why you are doing such an absurd thing.

**Horst**

Peregrine wrote:
I feel like threads like this exist primarily to make the people who refuse to paint their models feel better about their decision by separating out the painting into its own separate hobby that they can opt out of. In reality painting is inherently part of the gaming hobby, as it's the reason to pay thousands of dollars for miniatures instead of playing a game with $20 worth of cardboard tokens. You can in theory participate without painting, but one has to ask why you are doing such an absurd thing.

... Yea, probably.

**JNAProductions**

So, the current poll numbers are:

Collecting..........21%..........[ 44 ]
Building..........26%..........[ 53 ]
Painting..........24%..........[ 50 ]
Gaming..........29%..........[ 59 ]
Total Votes : 206

Which I find kinda interesting, because they're all pretty dang close.

**Galas**

Peregrine wrote:
I feel like threads like this exist primarily to make the people who refuse to paint their models feel better about their decision by separating out the painting into its own separate hobby that they can opt out of. In reality painting is inherently part of the gaming hobby, as it's the reason to pay thousands of dollars for miniatures instead of playing a game with $20 worth of cardboard tokens. You can in theory participate without painting, but one has to ask why you are doing such an absurd thing.

Oh no, I paint my models (Or buy less models and pay people to paint them for me), and I absolutely thinks having painted models on the table makes the experience 100 times better.

Is just that I hate it with the burning passion of a thousand stars.

For me is like security checks on an Airport. Something horrible but neccesary for having a experience that I enjoy (Traveling)

**Argive**

Desubot wrote:
Insectum7 wrote:
All of them?

All of them

All of them ?

**insaniak**

Peregrine wrote:
You can in theory participate without painting, but one has to ask why you are doing such an absurd thing.

One doesn't, since one has had it explained to oneself on numerous occasions in the past. One's refusal to accept those explanations as valid doesn't actually make them any less valid to the people making them.

JNAProductions wrote:
So, the current poll numbers are:

Collecting..........21%..........[ 44 ]
Building..........26%..........[ 53 ]
Painting..........24%..........[ 50 ]
Gaming..........29%..........[ 59 ]
Total Votes : 206

Which I find kinda interesting, because they're all pretty dang close.

Hard to really draw conclusions from it though without knowing how many people voted for multiple things. Fifty people saying they're interested in both painting and gaming gets you the same result as fifty people saying that they're only interested in painting and 50 others saying that they're only interested in gaming.

**JNAProductions**

True enough.

**Peregrine**

insaniak wrote:
One doesn't, since one has had it explained to oneself on numerous occasions in the past. One's refusal to accept those explanations as valid doesn't actually make them any less valid to the people making them.

Once can hear many times why people believe that the earth is flat and still say "WTF, how can you believe that nonsense".

**JNAProductions**

Peregrine wrote:
insaniak wrote:
One doesn't, since one has had it explained to oneself on numerous occasions in the past. One's refusal to accept those explanations as valid doesn't actually make them any less valid to the people making them.

Once can hear many times why people believe that the earth is flat and still say "WTF, how can you believe that nonsense".

That's because the Earth being round is an objective fact.

How to enjoy a hobby is pretty damn subjective.

**Blastaar**

All four for me, but if there wasn't a game to play I wouldn't have much interest in building, converting or painting. Half of the fun of those things is playing games with the models I built, painted and converted.

**SHUPPET**

I voted for everything but collecting. Not sure why I would collect them if I couldn't play or paint them, they'd be extremely pricey paper weights.

Lore is definitely a 5th part of the hobby.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Peregrine wrote:
insaniak wrote:
One doesn't, since one has had it explained to oneself on numerous occasions in the past. One's refusal to accept those explanations as valid doesn't actually make them any less valid to the people making them.

Once can hear many times why people believe that the earth is flat and still say "WTF, how can you believe that nonsense".

That's absolutely right, playing the most competitive tabletop strategy game for enjoyment and not painting is absurd and wrong. This is just one of the facts of life, like the Earth being round, and maybe someday those peasants will catch up to the unshakable pillar of reason that is our very own Peregrine.

**Peregrine**

SHUPPET wrote:
playing the most competitive tabletop strategy game

I'm not sure why you posted this in a 40k thread, as it has nothing to do with 40k.

**Galas**

Peregrine wrote:
SHUPPET wrote:
playing the most competitive tabletop strategy game

I'm not sure why you posted this in a 40k thread, as it has nothing to do with 40k.

He is right. 40k is the most competitive miniatures game by definition, because it is the most popular.
More people= More competition=The most competitive game.

Now one could ask about the quality of that competition but to be honest I prefer mediocre but fun competition I can have with a ton of different people over depth and complex competition I can only have with my cat.

**SHUPPET**

Yeah. Whether or not you think it's a better game, it objectively has the most competition and tournaments.

The problem is that you are incapable of separating your subjective opinion from objective facts Peregrine. Let's go through it

Earth is round = quantifiable statement, objective fact
40k has more competition than other table top miniature games = quantifiable statement, objective fact

Playing 40k without painting miniatures is a mistake = subjective opinion packaged as a fact
40k is a crap game = subjective opinion from someone who doesn't even play the game

You've been told why people play this game without painting many times over. You just aren't capable of grasping the concept of subjectivity, or that someone might enjoy something you don't, so you act like its an incontestable fact that it's WRONG to do so, and keep angrily beating your head against this wall about people having fun the wrong way.

**Peregrine**

Sorry, I didn't realize that "most competitive" meant nothing more than "most popular" and assumed that it involved things like being the best balanced game with the most interesting strategic decisions or the best test of player ability. By your extremely flawed standard yes, 40k is the "most competitive miniatures game", though it is of course much less competitive than a lot of other non-miniatures games.

And fine, it's subjective opinion that playing 40k with unpainted models is wrong. It's subjective opinion that eating rotting food full of maggots is disgusting (and in fact maggot cheese is considered a delicacy by some people). You can say "BUT THATS SUBJECTIVE" all you want, but I'm still going to question the sanity of anyone who would willingly do either of those things.